It is safe to have big magnets in card readers?

[Matt Beardsley]

Just got in two slick new card readers from Prograde, one for CFast 2 and SD and one for CFexpress and SD. They have fairly strong magnets in them that allows them to snap together in a stack, which I guess is interesting and potentially useful? However, I usually have card readers bundled in my kit alongside SSDs, near laptops and tablets and phones, obviously in close proximity to capture cards. Aren't strong magnets capable of damaging data on all those devices? Seems sketchy to me...

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Magnets are fine if you keep them away from HDDs/ spinning disks and tapes or other media forms that actually use magnets to alter the medium. It takes some seriously powerful magnetic fields to disrupt SSDs or other electronics. And I doubt these are anywhere close. But you can put a reasonably strong neodymium magnet up against a smartphone and watch the phone go nuts.